Thursday, April 19, 2012

Kabocha Soup

I've been eating this soup my entire life and didn't even know that it was a Japanese pumpkin until a few months ago. One warning though, if you only cook for yourself this soup will last all week. I've been eating every night since Sunday. Lol. I guess the plus side is that I didn't have to cook for the rest of the week.

INGREDIENTS:
Kabocha Pumpkin
1lb Pork Short Spare Ribs (You can do chicken but I still had some meat left over)
4-5 TBSP Fish Sauce
Chopped Cilantro (Optional)
4-5 C Water

DIRECTION:
1) I don't like cutting the pumpkin, so I cheated. I used the Eat Cleaner to clean the outside and then wrapped the pumpkin with aluminum foil. Then baked in the oven at 350 Degrees for 45min or until the pumpkin was soft. While the pumpkin is still hot, remove the pit, stalk and cut it bite size pieces. Leave the skin on because it has a ton of nutritional value.

2) Meanwhile, in a pot boil the pork ribs at medium heat and remove the surface fat.

3)Add the pumpkin and fish sauce in the pot and leave to stew until the soup thickens (~40 min)

4)Since I'm using pork, I'll let the soup cool down and store in the fridge over night. In the morning, you'll see that more of the fat will clot and remove that before reheating and serving.

5) Add Cilantro, rice and you've got a meal

Note: Refrigerating the soup only applies to pork or other fatty meats. You don't have to worry about that with chicken as long as its skinless. Also you can cook the meat separately a day ahead so you can serve it fresh. I am just lazy after work and it goes better with my laissez faire motto.

Enjoy! <3

EDIT: Sorry about the hyperlink address for the Eat Cleaner, just fixed it! :)